Computeropolis 2
Computeropolis 2 is a 2007 American computer-animated science fiction action-comedy film produced by Universal Feature Animation for Universal Pictures. The tenth animated feature in the Universal Animated Features canon, it was directed by Audel LaRoque from a screenplay by Thomas Lennon, LaRoque, and Mike Reiss, and a story by LaRoque, Michael Wildshill, Lennon, Karey Kirkpatrick, and Reiss. It is the sequel to 2004's Computeropolis, and takes place two years after the first film, with Peri Dazz now being 16 years old. It focuses on Peri and the gang entering a multiplayer virtual reality online world, during which Peri finds love. Soon, Computeropolis plunges into chaos when a mysterious gang of hackers try to hijack Peri's computer and take over the cyber city. Development of the film began shortly after the success of the original Computeropolis in 2004. LaRoque, who directed the first film, agreed to return to direct the sequel, after he was no longer directing Universal's cancelled animated film adaptation of Big Hero 6, which had been abandoned due to story problems. LaRoque and the story team developed the plot for the sequel over a weekend in November 2004. The original voice cast of the first film — Jesse McCartney, David Spade, Dan Fogler, David Hyde Pierce, Jodi Benson, Jon Lovitz, and Jennifer Tilly — reprised their roles, joined by Sarah Silverman, Chris Pine, Eddie Izzard, and Brian Stepanek. John Debney and Heitor Pereira also returned to compose the original score for the sequel. It was the last film produced by Universal Feature Animation before the studio was renamed Universal Animation Studios. Computeropolis 2 premiered on June 21, 2007 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, and was released in the United States on July 6, 2007. It was an immediate critical and commercial success, earning over $953 million worldwide on its $77 million budget, making it the highest-grossing animated film of 2007, the second highest-grossing film of the year, and the eleventh highest-grossing animated film of all time; it was the highest-grossing film from Universal Animation until Paradoria surpassed it in 2015. It was followed by Computeropolis 3 on March 5, 2010. Plot Two years after the events of the first film, a gang of hackers led by James V. Survick (nicknamed Cyber-Boy) invades and captures a secret coding base located far away from Computeropolis, renaming it as "Hackers' Palace". Cyber-Boy encounters a tracking map that leads them to Computeropolis, and they travel to the city, plotting to hack the vulnerable cyber hotspot. Meanwhile, Peri Dazz, now 16 years old, is living his dream as a member of the Desktop Component League (DCL), protecting the city of Computeropolis with his best friend Nicky Kickzoo. The DCL is sent on an assignment to apprehend Mr. Error, an anthropomorphic error message who has recently been bugging the citizens of Computeropolis. They successfully complete the mission, with Mr. Error taken into custody by internet officers Paul and Frank. Soon after, the DCL is rewarded by their leader Manager Marc with a visit to Virtual Paradise, a multiplayer mall park. While playing a game there, Peri spots a girl who also wears a hoodie; however, Nicky takes Peri with him and the gang before he can find out who she is. Back at the DCL headquarters, Marc tells Peri that he longs to find a new job, and leaves the DCL for new employment; Peri thus takes his place as the new leader of the DCL. The next day, Computeropolis mayor Fredrick Moss hires Peri for community service to clean up the mess Mr. Error made the other day; Peri initially refuses, but reluctantly volunteers. During his job, Peri sees the girl he saw at Virtual Paradise, only for Moss to tell him to get back to work. Nicky and the rest of the DCL visit Peri on his job, and Peri tells Nicky he is trying to find out more about the girl he saw, who is heading to Virtual Paradise. After the DCL leaves him, Peri eventually abandons his job and heads off to Virtual Paradise. When Peri catches up with her, the girl introduces herself as Vinna Binz, and Peri instantly falls in love with her. The next day, Cyber-Boy's gang arrives in Computeropolis and attacks the city. Peri, Nicky, and the rest of the DCL show up to stop them, only for the hackers to retreat. Cyber-Boy appears on the city's central monitor, explaining that everyone will not survive in the next 50 hours, as soon as he and his henchmen destroy and hijack the city. Shocked, Peri warns his friends and introduces Vinna to the DCL. Peri and Nicky later take Vinna to Cyber-Boy's hideout so they could spy on Cyber-Boy and his henchmen. As they make a sound which made Cyber-Boy and his henchmen notice them, the trio manage to escape from the minions. Peri tries to make a run for it, but is immediately captured by Cyber-Boy's henchmen. Cyber-Boy is furious at Peri for spying on him, so he sends the boy to the cell in his new inescapable prison. Peri discovers that Cyber-Boy, who is revealed to have hired Marc as a partner, has been planning to build a machine that could destroy the entire city through Peri's computer in order to achieve world domination. Nicky, Vinna and the rest of the DCL later save Peri and help him escape the prision. The heroes then go around and set off all the security alerts, overloading the system. The prison starts to crumble and fall apart. After they escape, Peri and Vinna spend personal time together, and Peri falls in love with her. The next day, Peri buys some Valentine's Day gifts for Vinna, but only to find out that she is moving to Japan so she could spent time studying anime and manga as well as speaking Japanese. She asks Peri to go with her to Japan, but Peri in turn asks Vinna to stay with him when Vinna says it is unlikely she will ever return before leaving right away. A heartbroken Peri has lacked the courage to ask Vinna out on a date. Meanwhile, Cyber-Boy orders his henchmen to destroy Computeropolis and take over the city. At the airport, Vinna, who starts catching feelings for Peri, leaves the airport and heads back to Computeropolis. However, by the time she gets there, Vinna was caught by Cyber-Boy and his henchmen, who find out that she is Peri's girlfriend. Fortunately, Marc calls and informs Peri and Nicky, and to rescue Vinna, the duo go undercover to distract Cyber-Boy in order to save Vinna. They find a bound and gagged Vinna strapped to a rocket and start to untie her, but Cyber-Boy confronts them by grabbing the remote to launch the rocket. The DCL, reunited with Marc, arrive and are able to defeat Cyber-Boy and his henchmen. At the end of the battle, Cyber-Boy was feeling dazed and was shot by Marc using his laser gun, causing Cyber-Boy to transform into a endoskeleton. The next day, Vinna prepares to leave on the taxi but she and Peri decide to remain together anyway, taking Nicky and the rest of the DCL along; they begin their new lives together. Voice cast *Jesse McCartney as Peri Dazz, a teenage computer wiz *David Spade as Nicky Kickzoo, a video game character whom Peri created *Sarah Silverman as Vinna Binz, a teenage girl Peri develops a crush on. Anne Hathaway was originally cast in the role, but left the film due to creative differences. *Chris Pine as James V. "Cyber-Boy" Survick, the leader of a gang of hackers who try to overthrow Peri's computer *Eddie Izzard as Fredrick Moss, the mayor of Computeropolis *Dan Fogler as Travis, Peri's fat best friend *David Hyde Pierce as Manager Marc, the leader and founding member of the DCL *Jodi Benson as Commander Cindy, a member of the DCL *Jon Lovitz as Notepad Ned, a member of the DCL *Jennifer Tilly as Painting Paula, a member of the DCL *Brian Stepanek as Gene, one of the hackers and Cyber-Boy's henchmen *Kari Wahlgren as Carol, the computer voice *Tress MacNeille as Heather Dazz, Peri's mother *Jeff Bennett as Earl Dazz, Peri's father *Harland Williams as Mr. Error, an anthropomorphic error message. Williams previously voiced Milo in the first film. *Doug Dale as Steve *Adam Buxton as Ben *Audel LaRoque as a spamming player *Joey King as a little girl *Jill Talley as the girl's mother *Stephen Tobolowsky as a Computeropolis citizen *Kevin Michael Richardson as the announcer *Clea Lewis as a Computeropolis citizen *John DiMaggio as Junior Hacker, one of the hackers *Mako Iwamatsu (in his final role) as a Japanese taxi driver Clippit, Bill, Sam, Paul and Frank from its predecessor make non-speaking cameo appearances in various scenes. Additional voices *Isabella Acres *Jim Anderson *Jack Angel *Alexander Bates *Bob Bergen *Claudia Besso *Brian Cook *John Cygan *Madison Davenport *Debi Derryberry *Jessica Evans *Bill Farmer *Don Fullilove *Teresa Ganzel *Zachary Gordon *Jess Harnell *William Jennings *Adam Macklin *Danny Mann *Laura Marano *Mona Marshall *Mickie McGowan *Alec Medlock *Brandon Minez *Laraine Newman *Colleen O'Shaughnessey *Madison Pettis *Jan Rabson *Grace Rolek *Karen Stimson *James Kevin Ward *Ariel Winter Production In July 2004, at the time of the release of Computeropolis, Universal Animation president Jeff Segal confirmed that a sequel was in the works, tentatively scheduled for a summer 2007 release. David Silverman, the co-director of the first film, did not return for the film due to his occupation with The Simpsons Movie, but remained as a consultant for the film. Over the weekend in early November 2004, a story team consisting of LaRoque, Michael Wildshill, Thomas Lennon, Karey Kirkpatrick, and Mike Reiss was assembled, and came up with an idea of the sequel, conceiving the idea of how Peri would find his love in a virtual world. Lennon then wrote an initial treatment for the screenplay. In May 2005, Variety reported that Jodie Foster was negotiating to voice Peri's love interest Vinna Binz, but the negotiations failed. In October 2005, Universal announced it would have the subtitle Internet Chaos, which was changed by March 2006 to The Error of Doom before simply being retitled as Computeropolis 2 in November 2006. By December 2005, Anne Hathaway had joined the cast to voice Vinna. On March 19, 2006, it was announced that LaRoque would return to direct the sequel, even though he was originally too busy due to his developing Universal's adaptation of Big Hero 6, which was later cancelled. In May 2006, Universal confirmed that Jesse McCartney, David Spade, Dan Fogler, David Hyde Pierce, Jodi Benson, Jon Lovitz, and Jennifer Tilly were returning to reprise their roles. Newcomers include Chris Pine as Cyber-Boy and Eddie Izzard as Fredrick Moss. On April 22, 2007, just a month before the film's first full trailer, it was announced that Anne Hathaway had left the film over creative differences about how her character should come to life. At the time of her departure, Hathaway's character had already been fully voiced and animated. Sarah Silverman, who had already been considered before Hathaway, stepped in to voice Vinna. Due to the finished animation, Silverman had to match her timing exactly to the character's mouth movement. Initially, during her five-day recording, she tried to imitate Hathaway's voice, but found it impossible. She ended up only using Hathaway as an inspiration, and resolved to go with her own interpretation of the character. Her work was commended by Variety, saying: "You'd never guess she wasn't the filmmakers' first choice." William Shatner was asked to reprise his role as Frank from the first film, but was unable to do so due to other professional commitments. Plans to include Paul and Frank in larger speaking roles in the sequel were abandoned early. Music Release In June 2007, Computeropolis 2 was selected for competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival before its commercial release. In the United States, it premiered on June 21, 2007 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. Universal Pictures released the film widely in the United States on July 6, 2007, in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2007, and in Australia on July 29, 2007. Marketing On July 5, 2006, an early teaser trailer was released online via Universal Animation's YouTube channel, and was later attached to BJ and Wally, which went into theaters two days later. The trailer featured footage not presented in the final film, similar to the teaser trailer of its predecessor. The trailer also displayed the film's original subtitle The Error of Doom, which was removed in November 2006. The first theatrical trailer was released on November 3, 2006, and was shown in front of films such as Flushed Away, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Happy Feet, Jimmy & Sam 3000, and Night at the Museum. The second theatrical trailer was released on March 30, 2007 and was shown in front of films such as Meet the Robinsons, Shrek the Third, Surf's Up, Tony 2: Across the Nation, and Ratatouille. TV spots began to air between June and early July of 2007. The film was backed by a large marketing campaign, with various merchandise becoming available throughout 2007. A video game based on the film was released for the Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, PC and Nintendo DS. Home media Computeropolis 2 was released on DVD and HD DVD on December 11, 2007, on Blu-ray on July 22, 2008, and on Blu-ray 3D on May 3, 2011. Both releases include a short film titled Peri and Nicky Get a Flu. Reception Critical response Computeropolis 2 received generally positive reviews from critics, with many considering it to be better than its predecessor. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 84% approval rating with an average rating of 7.3/10 based on 186 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "The elements seem familiar to fans of the original, but Computeropolis 2 offers some more action scenes, humor, and its fantastic animation with a batch of new characters." On another review aggregator Metacritic, the film has a weighted average rating of 80 out of 100 based on 47 professional reviews published in newspapers, magazines and in highly regarded Internet sites, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars saying it's "wonderous, entertaining, hilarious, and it's full with enjoyment," while Richard Corliss of Time Magazine gave a positive review and called it "laughably fun." Max Nicholson of IGN commented, "Computeropolis 2 lives up to the first groundbreaking box office smash, except the plot is very familiar." James Rocchi of MSN Movies gave the film four out of five stars, calling it "a sequel that is way better and cooler than the original, with full of hilarious scenes with some action and more." A.O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film for being able to balance out the action sequences and strong storytelling, writing that "Computeropolis 2 has a lot of better sequences than the original Computeropolis, with some gags, action scenes, and it has the usual wit from the original." In contrast to the praise it received, even in some positive reviews, some critics said that the film wasn't as good as the original film. Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, saying "Amazing sequels like Toy Story 2 and Shrek 2 showed the laughs of more fun scenes; Computeropolis 2 doesn't quite have usual gags as the original Universal Pictures hit." Box office Computeropolis 2 opened in 4,219 North American theaters on its opening weekend, grossing $52.1 million on its first day, which was the biggest Friday opening day in July. During its opening weekend, Computeropolis 2 earned $133.5 million from 4,219 theaters, which at the time set new records such as the highest opening for a Universal Animation film, the highest opening for a 2007 film in the United States and Canada, and previously held the biggest opening for an animated feature (record overtaken by Finding Dory in 2016). Regarding the film's successful opening, Lauren Martin, Universal Pictures' president of marketing said, "We had a great date, and this is a big win for Universal Feature Animation." Computeropolis 2 grossed $362,152,089 domestically (US and Canada) and $591,324,272 in foreign markets for a total of $953,476,361 worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film worldwide of 2007 (behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End), and the highest-grossing Universal film of that year. In addition, Computeropolis 2 was the highest-grossing animated film of 2007, the highest-grossing Universal Studios film (surpassing Jurassic Park in 1993) and the highest-grossing animated film ever, surpassing the three-year-old record held by Shrek 2 in 2004, until it was later surpassed by Toy Story 3 in 2010 and held the record for the highest-grossing animated film at the North American box office until the release of Finding Dory in 2016. With DVD sales and Computeropolis 2 merchandise estimated to total almost $700 million, Computeropolis 2, which was produced with a budget of $77 million, was Universal's most profitable film at the time of its release, and was also the highest-grossing film produced by Universal Animation at the time until Paradoria surpassed it in 2015. Accolades Sequels Coming soon! Transcripts Main To see the main transcript of the film, click here. Trailers To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.